AT a recent award ceremony held by Forbes Middle East, Samir Cherfan, Managing Director of Nissan Middle East, was honored with the prestigious ‘Global Meets Local' Award. Cherfan's milestone achievements in the region have earned him the accolade as the only automotive leader to be in the Forbes rankings for 3 consecutive years. The event took place at Waldorf Astoria – Palm Jumeirah, and recognized the top 100 executives for their accomplishments while heading global corporate organizations. Cherfan secured the 29th position in the overall ranking. "I am honored to receive such a significant industry award which reflects the considerable effort and talent within the Nissan organization and at its dealership partners. This award is recognition that the Nissan brand is heading in the right direction and that the organization is demonstrating its ongoing commitment to become one of the fastest growing automotive brands in the region," said Cherfan on receiving the award. Since Samir's took the helm at Nissan Middle East in 2012, the company's business grew by 45 percent in market share across the GCC. The single biggest milestone was the increase of 216 percent growth in sales for the Nissan Patrol models. Cherfan also played a vital role in increasing Nissan's performance in the region on quantity and quality of its business, customer satisfaction and service excellence, as well as its brand power investments. Nissan's Revival Plan in KSA has been instrumental to its success in the region. In November 2013, Nissan renewed its bond to the Saudi Arabian market by establishing a direct presence in the Kingdom through the formation of Nissan KSA, and also appointed Alissa Auto as its strategic partner. Recently in March 2016, Nissan also announced the appointment of Petromin as a second strategic partner in the Kingdom. Looking to the GCC in 2016, Nissan listed its business priorities as: growth with focus on Saudi Arabia, sustained customer leadership and continued investment in the Nissan brand including CSR engagement. In addition, Nissan Middle East has also established a distribution company in Turkey to add to its overall growth. The "Global Meets Local" study was inspired by the prestigious "Forbes Global 2000", a ranking of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable publicly listed companies in the world. The innovative study highlights the significance of the MENA region and its top executives on the global corporate stage.
